Gian Carlo Menotti‘s tightly framed two-act verismo opera The Medium brought opera into the era of film noir.

Written in the aftermath of World War II, it invites audiences into the parlour of Madame Flora, a self-proclaimed spiritualist who scratches together a living conducting sham seances for grieving parents, using her own daughter Monica as a stand-in for their dead children.

A faker in a world of fakery, you might assume, until one evening, during one of emotionally charged session, Flora suddenly feels an invisible hand grip her throat. Is this the spirit world seeking revenge?

Ruth Strutt as Madame Flora in The Medium. Photo supplied

“It really feels like a thriller more than an opera,” says Jane Magão, the director of a new production of Menotti’s spooky masterpiece about to be unveiled at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney.

“It’s so fast-paced, only an hour long,” says Magão. “It doesn’t give you those long arias about how a character feels. Everything drives the plot. Sometimes it reminds me of a play like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The dialogue really is that sharp.”

Presented by the Sydney-based Operantics, Magão’s production features...